Lotus R&D is “Harris Porter, Inc.” by my read. It also sounds like he finished what he started at Faraday Future. For him to go off and start his own company means a few things: he has the cash to do something like that and stay afloat or customers to keep him going, and that Faraday Future either didn’t want to or couldn’t keep him.
I sincerely hope he continues to pursue his dreams and perhaps this new corporation will allow him the flexibility to do so. The more interesting story is why he left Spacex. I recall they had some “bottom 5%” lay-offs at one point, and I don’t remember this fellow’s name prior.

Based on the link above (thanks kdawg), it sounds more like he left to start his own design/consulting firm (as mentioned above). Looking at his project list, it sounds like he wants to be able to continue to work with both Space X and Faraday, in addition to other companies, on a contractual basis.

I think he just wants to get out of the nitty gritty details and do more of the big picture work, and that’s probably easier to do with your own consultation company.

I always find it strange when people characterize one single person leaving an organization as an indication something is wrong there. People change jobs for many reasons, and rather seldom is it a case of “rats leaving a sinking ship”.

Heck, as I recall, Tesla’s chief engineer was one of the 10% of employees who Elon Musk fired when he took over the company. That didn’t exactly signal the collapse of Tesla, now did it?

My initial reaction to InsideEVs’ coverage of Faraway Faraday Future was that it seems to be a lot more hype than substance. My opinion has only been strengthened by the “reveal” of what I’m not sure even qualifies as an actual concept car — was it just a non-functional mockup? — of something light-years away from an actual street-legal production car.

However, one single person leaving the company, no matter how highly placed, is not evidence of anything other than the fact that people do change jobs from time to time, for various reasons.